1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an arrangement for stitching the spine of printed products, compiled of folded printed sheets, by means of staples, wherein the printed products are transported by means of a conveying device, with the spine transverse to the conveying direction and at a spacing sequentially behind one another, to a stitching device comprised of a stitching head/bending arrangement.
2. Description of the Related Art
Devices of this kind are used, inter alia, in so-called gather-stitchers where loosely collected printed sheets are combined to printed products that are supplied to a stitching device downstream of the collecting stretch.
In newspaper production pre-products are inserted into a main product. For some time now, newspapers have issued in a tabloid format which is comprised of several parts which are stitched by staples in rotation. These printed products are considered reader-friendly and have a higher quality standard.
Such printed products could be further improved in the interest of the publisher as well as the reader such that the printed product as an entire product is stitched only once.
In the newspaper production there is also the desire for a more economic use of an insertion machine, for example, by means of the possibility of stitching inserted printed products, wherein the quality of such printed products could be further improved, for example, with a special envelope and/or a subsequent trimming of the printed products.
Devices of the aforementioned kind are described, inter alia, in Swiss patent application CH-A-667 621 and German patent document DE-B-36 45 276 as well as realized in the form of the gather-stitcher Combi Drum of the company Ferag AG, Hinwil, Switzerland. The devices used in this context for stitching printed products require a high mechanical expenditure, in particular, because each saddle-shaped support comprises a bending device so that for 40 and more supports on a drum a high expenditure results which is also noticeable in the maintenance costs.
The stitching of printed products which are inserted into pockets with their fold leading is described in German patent document DE-B-1 224 329 wherein the pockets for receiving the printed products are secured on a revolving drum in a perpendicular position and pass in the lower area of the drum a stationary stitching device which has a bending device, dipping into the pocket in a radial direction to the drum axis, and a stitching head on the opposite side interacting with the bending device. This stitching device does not allow a economic processing output because of the long travel stroke of the bending device.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a device of the aforementioned kind which no longer has the aforementioned deficiencies and which can be produced easily.
In accordance with the present invention, this is achieved in that the stitching device is embodied as a stitching support having a stitching head/bending arrangement and driven during the stitching process approximately in the same direction and at least approximately with the same speed as the conveying device.
In the following the invention will be described in the form of several embodiments illustrated in the drawings; reference is being had to the drawings in regard to all details not described specifically in the specification.